Book review of The Dark We Know by Wen-yi Lee

The back-to-back deaths of two childhood friends push Isadora Chang to leave her hometown for a life in the city—until her own abusive father dies, and she is brought back into the restrictive, judgmental community of Slater. Haunted by memories of her lost friends, Zach and Wren, Isadora is desperate to escape Slater again, but she’s stopped by Mason, the other survivor from their childhood friend group. He shares that he suspects that Zach and Wren’s deaths were actually caused by a sinister supernatural force plaguing the community. Isa faces a crossroads: leave everything behind, or stay and try to stop the force from claiming more lives. 

Wen-yi Lee’s debut novel, The Dark We Know, is a raw, poignant exploration of grief and growing up. Lee paints a picture of ruined innocence: Isa and Mason are dealing with the loss of not only Zach and Wren, but also their shared childhood and the close friendship they once had. While Mason is determined to reinvestigate their past, Isa wants nothing more than to run away. Lee fully explores the messy, complicated experience of grieving, and as Isa and Mason work through their pain, they find there’s no clear path forward: Sometimes healing looks like remembering a happy memory, at other times like having a terrifying nightmare.

The Dark We Know pulls no punches with its incredibly visceral supernatural elements. The novel opens with Isa drawing gruesome portraits of dying people—drawings she has no memory of creating. She’s haunted, literally and emotionally. These horrors center on Slater, an isolated former mining town whose restrictive culture rejects anyone who questions the community’s strict views on religion, sexuality and lifestyle. From Trish, Isa’s older sister who acts more like her mother, to Otto Vandersteen, the mysterious but compelling heir to the family who founded the town, the cast is full of multifaceted characters, each with secrets of their own. Unraveling the mysteries of the town means Isa has to come to terms with being truly vulnerable—and learn how to handle the vulnerability of others, too.

Not for the faint of heart, this book draws a profound connection between supernatural forces and the terrors of grief and dishonesty. Isa and the other characters fight to stay hopeful about the world, even when it’s crumbling around them. Amid intense sadness, they grow and learn how to genuinely lean on each other, creating a story that, despite its dark imagery and heavy subject matter, feels truly resonant and uplifting.